Fire In
Syllabus
SFFMA Firefighter Certification Custom Course for
Intermediate and Advanced Certification
Welcome:
It is our pleasure to welcome you to our on-line State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Intermediate and Advanced Custom Firefighter training course. Our goal is to successfully prepare you to master all objectives as required by the State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Association and to obtain your goal of becoming an Intermediate and Advanced Firefighter accredited by the SFFMA. .
Required
Textbooks:
Each student is required to provide their own textbooks for reference and assignments. Fire In Texas utilizes the following primarily textbook for this course to meet SFFMA curriculum references:
IFSTA, Essentials of Fire Fighting, 4th edition
IFSTA, Essentials of Fire Fighting Study Guide
Additional textbooks are utilized in the preparation of the various chapters PowerPoint presentations. These additional textbooks will be listed on the opening slides of the various chapters; however these textbooks are not required to be purchased by the individual students. It would be suggested that each fire department have these textbook for reference purposes by their individual members.
Required
The student is required to read and become familiar with the listed reference pages in order to complete the course requirements. As the student prepares to begin a new chapter, that listed reference pages shall be read in full prior to the student attempting to complete any portion of the section assignments.
Instruction
On-Line
Portion
The initial portion of training
will consist of the on-line portion. The
on-line portion will cover intermediate and advanced sections that you are
missing. Each section will have a power
point presentation and the majority of the sections will have a required test
that the student must complete before moving to the next section. Skill, and
assignment sheets are also required with many of the Sections. They must be filled out by the appropriate
person and sent to Fire In Texas at the completion of
the course to the following address:
The course shall be presented and the student shall receive the training in order. The student shall not skip ahead to future sections. Intermediate sections the student is missing first and then the advanced sections. If a student is missing both sections of an are such as hose the Intermediate and the Advanced curriculum with be covered under the Advanced heading for all hours in the Intermediate and Advanced. The presentation builds the terminology, procedures, and concepts as you progress through the program. If a student were to skip ahead, there may be confusion, due to an assumption that all previous materials had been covered.
This course is a self-paced course, meaning that you may progress through the program at your own pace. Fire In Texas doesn’t give you a time limit but if your department filed for a grant through the Texas Forest Service then they (the Texas Forest Service) gives you a total of 3 months to complete the course in it’s entirety no matter how many hours are involved in the course..
On-Line Tests
There will be an on-line assessment test at the conclusion of the majority of the sections. The student will take these tests where listed and shall not proceed to the next section until the on-line assessment section test is completed for that section. Each test must be sent to Fire In Texas for the students file.
These individual tests will be graded and recorded. The grades of these on-line assessment section tests will make up a portion of your overall grade for the course. Minimum passing average score of 70% is required.
At the point in time that you have arrived to take a test, the
student shall click on the link titled, Answer Sheet
May Be Used For All Test Submissions” this is found below the first
presentation and print off this blank answer sheet or place your answers in the
answer sheet and print it and fax it to Fire In Texas or click the submit by
email button and send to Fire in Texas. This
file cannot be saved unless you have the full version of Adobe 7.0 or
higher. Next to the same link is also a
Word document that can be used as an Answer sheet for all of the tests. The student shall then click on the like
titled, “Section ____ Assessment Test”.
The student may read the questions directly from the computer screen and
record your answers on the printed off answer sheet, or you may print off the
Assessment Test and take the test away from the computer. Upon completion of the test the student shall
either: (1) fax the completed answer sheet to
our facility at 817 573-5087,
(2) mail the answer sheet
to our facility at
NOTE: The Assessment Tests are changed on a periodic schedule so the student must verify that as they prepare to complete that section of the course, that the Assessment Test they submit an answer sheet, in fact, corresponds to the same Assessment Test displayed on the website on that date. The student must make certain that their name and date they took the test is displayed on the answer sheet when they send it to Fire In Texas.
Assignment
Sheets
At the conclusion of each power point presentation there is a slide titled “Assignment” in which the text reads as follows:
“Each
student shall print off the Section __ Assignment Report Sheet and have one of
their local TCFP or SFFMA approved instructors verify that the student has
completed the listed objectives.
These
objectives must be completed and the form filled out properly before the
student may proceed to the next section
The form
should be retained in a notebook format and all forms will be turned in at the
completion of this course”
The student shall click on the text on these slides titled “Assignment Report Sheet” which will take the student to the document for printing and inclusion in the student’s notebook. The student shall have a local TCFP instructor, SFFMA instructor, Fire In Texas instructor or anyone authorized by SFFMA standards to sign off on these forms verifying that the student has completed the listed objective.
At the conclusion of the course, the student shall turn the
notebook containing the collection of these Assignment Report Sheets in to the
Fire In Texas office for evaluation and documentation. Mailing address:
Overall
Grading
The students overall grade will be comprised of the following: After the student has completed the Assessment tests, the grade from each of the Assessment tests will need to be a minimum of 70% for each test in order for the student to be eligible to receive his certificates.
Instructor
The primary instructor for this program is Mr. Ronnie Gothard. Mr. Gothard has been involved with the Fire Service essentially his entire life and holds Master Certifications from the Texas Commission on Fire Protection in Suppression, Inspector, Investigator, and Instructor. During his career he has served as Fire Chief /Fire Marshal for two Texas cities, instructed the Associate Degree program for Kilgore College, was employed by the Texas Commission on Fire Protection as the Ft. Worth area Compliance Officer and has been a fire service instructor his entire career.
During your on-line portion of training, Mr. Gothard will be available to answer your questions, or assist you with any difficulties, which you may encounter. Mr. Gothard may be contacted at the following email address: Ronnie@fireintexas.com
If you have a problem with the course content please contact Mr. Gothard at the email address above and he will respond to your questions as quickly as possible.
SFFMA Examination
The student may wish to take the SFFMA written examination for accreditation. It will be the student’s responsibility after successful completion of the Fire In Texas course work to contact and establish their date, location, and appropriate application requirements to take the SFFMA test for accreditation.
On-Line
Computer Access
To access the course please follow the following instructions.
1. The student shall go to: www.fireintexas2.com. This will take the student to our SFFMA home page. Near the top of the page, a banner will be displayed with Text Boxes such as: Home, Introductory Course, SFFMA Basic Course, SFFMA Intermediate Course, SFFMA Advanced Course, and Custom Courses
2. When this display is located, the student shall click on the Custom Courses text.
The student should now have a drop down menu displayed that displays the different names please find your name and click on it.
3. From the drop down
menu the student shall click on the section that they are currently
working. A sign-on box will appear and
the student shall enter their user name and password that was emailed to them
upon completion of the sign up process.
4. Please note that these user names and passwords are in lower case and upper case letters with no space between words.
5. After signing into your course, the student will see a link where a copy of this syllabus may be located at any time in the future if this copy is lost or unavailable.
6. The student will then view a blue banner which will contain the specific information for that particular titled section. The icon on the left of each section is simply there to inform the student what the topic of this particular section will consist of.
7. There will be a picture icon titled “Click here for presentation”. By clicking on this picture icon the PowerPoint presentation for this particular section will be displayed. After viewing the PowerPoint presentation, the student will find a test.
The Intermediate and Advanced SFFMA course is accompanied hands-on skills. Each skill must be administered by an approved TCFP instructor, approved SFFMA instructor, Fire In Texas instructors, or may be administered by the students local Fire Chief and Training Coordinator as approved by SFFMA. In order for a student to successfully complete the course all academic requirements and all skills requirements must be successfully completed, documented, and turned in to Fire In Texas. SFFMA Skill Sheets must be obtained, completely filled out, and returned to Fire In Texas offices before the Certificate of Completion will be issued to the student.
The refund policy for Fire In Texas shall be as follows: The day that you are issued your User Name and Password will be counted as the first official day of class. Full refunds will be made if the student notifies Fire In Texas in writing within the first three class days. After the third class day has passed, there will be no refunds.
Sounds complicated, doesn’t it? Actually after you move around on the site a few times, it will not appear to be near as complicated.
Hopefully this has addressed some of the points of concern that you may have had regarding this course and how it will be administered. If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Gothard at Ronnie@fireintexas.com .
Enjoy your learning experience with Fire In Texas and if we may assist you in any manner, we are ready to do so.